By Richard Wall
Spring 2006 in New Orleans' Ninth Ward neighborhood of Holy Cross has been boom times for looting. Scavenger trucks laden with prize renovation booty—four-panel cypress doors worth $700 a piece, grand old hardwood windows, decorative brackets, Victorian shutters, mantels, and other desirable architectural details of homes—have been picking their way through Holy Cross, which until May 8 was under a "Look and Leave" order.
Look and Leave prevented residents of Holy Cross and other parts of the Ninth Ward from staying in their houses—and encouraged savvy thieves to move in. Police, historic preservationists, and victimized homeowners suspect that out-of town contractors and those working in historic renovation—people who know the value of these items—are directing thieves on what to take.
"It's been a disaster the last six weeks, especially in Holy Cross," says Stephanie Bruno, director of Operation Comeback, a post-Katrina effort by the Preservation Resource Center (PRC) in New Orleans. "You don't even have to go into the house to see that it's been looted. The thieves started with the outside details, targeting the cast-iron grates that cover soffits and crawlspaces."
They take the decorative turned-wood brackets under the eaves, the Victorian cornices over doors and windows, the doors and windows themselves, and mantels. Dozens of Holy Cross houses have been almost completely stripped of details.
"We think many of the people doing this are from outside New Orleans, and that most of these items will end up in other parts of the country," says Bruno. "The homes that lost these items are, for the most part, in areas where they won't have the income to sink into architectural details. Those things won't be going back into New Orleans houses."
The police have more pressing issues than disappearing porch columns, though they have alerted patrols to be on the lookout for crews picking apart houses. Bruno hopes that lifting the Look and Leave order will help reduce the rampant theft from Holy Cross' Creole cottages and shotgun houses, which represent a concentration of New Orleans' 38,000 historic buildings.
An Invitation to Thievery
Right after the storm, one of the major New Orleans dealers in architectural details posted one thousand signs on utility poles around historic parts of town, declaring cash payments for "old doors, mantels, shutters, and flooring." The signs made James A. Turner see red. So the Detroit historic preservationist, who first went to New Orleans in November to lend a hand, began tearing the signs down.
"I understand their desire," says Turner. "But in that atmosphere right after the hurricane—where the Corps of Engineers had left open nearly every door in the city, where people were devastated and had no money—advertising cash for architectural details is tantamount to being complicit in looting."
Turner, who is just back from his third trip to New Orleans and will return in July to give a workshop on window restoration, hopes the looting will slow down now. "These architectural details are significant in the small homes," says Turner. "The little details tell the story of the neighborhood, its continual renewal and restoration. For example, some of the walls in these Holy Cross homes were made more than 100 years ago from barges that shipped goods down the Mississippi and were then dismantled for their hardwood."
One Step Ahead of the Bobcat
Bad guys aren't the only ones contributing to the dismantling of New Orleans' architectural culture. Good Samaritans, particularly the many college groups that came to town around spring break to help clean up, have unwittingly thrown out tons of architectural details .
"I love them, and they have been wonderful," says Bruno, "but some of them got instructions about gutting these houses that did damage to their architectural fabric. You can see some houses they have been to where it's been taken down to the studs."
Turner, who is considering opening a branch of his Detroit company, Turner Restoration, in New Orleans, says they were throwing out whole windows just because they had some mold on them. "Those can be saved, brought back and restored," says Turner. "Those windows made of old-growth wood are much better than new ones."
At one point, PRC volunteers were pulling doors, windows, and other details out of the trash piles in front of these gutted homes, trying to stay a step ahead of the Bobcat operators coming by to crush the pile into a dumpster. The volunteers label and store the salvaged items and leave a note for the homeowner about reclaiming them. The PRC's Operation Comeback holds seminars and distributes information that shows residents the value of historic materials and how to best salvage them in their homes.
Urban Forestry
Theft is bad, ignorance is bad, but they are not going to be as bad for historic preservation in New Orleans as a demolition buyout would be. Thousands of homeowners, many of whom have lost everything and didn't have much to begin with, are waiting for word on a proposal that would offer them a buyout for demolishing their damaged homes. That is a real attraction for many people, particularly those uninsured or underinsured. If that happens, there might be a flood of legitimate New Orleans architectural details on the market, salvaged by owners before the bulldozer shoves over their shotguns.
So how do you make sure that you are not an unwitting buyer of stolen goods harvested in what some residents are calling New Orleans' newest industry of urban forestry? It's not easy, but these guidelines may help:
- "The sure way is to buy from non-profits, such as the PRC, because all the items we receive are donated and logged," says Bruno. Check with historic preservation groups in your area.
- Buying from dealers who also do demolition work increases the odds that their merchandise has been legitimately obtained.
- Ask the dealer what precautions he or she takes in buying wholesale.
- See if the dealer abides by local regulations. For example, a New Orleans ordinance requires that dealers warehouse new purchases for 30 days before offering them for sale.
Richard Wall writes about the construction industry from St. Augustine, Fla.
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